NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN.

I'm not sure what all the hatin' is for with this movie. It has its flaws, but it's still decent entertainment. The movie picks up a few years after the first, and Larry (Ben Stiller) has quit his night guard job to move on to 'bigger and better' things as an inventor. Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) sells out with the museum, turning everything to the technology side of things. So that means quite a few of the exhibits have to go. And to where else? The stock room of the Smithsonian. But Larry gets a call from Jed (Owen Wilson) and Octavius (Steve Coogan) that all hell's broke loose, since the monkey stole the tablet of Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek), which was supposed to stay back at the previous museum. But now Ahkmenrah's older brother, Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), wants to get a hold of the tablet, as it apparently has the power to bring back an army of the dead so that Kahmunrah can take over the world. So now Larry must team up with old friends and new, including Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) and General Custer (an almost unrecognizable Bill Hader), to fight Kahmunrah and his new henchmen, including Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), and Napoleon (Alain Chabat). And, of course, there are a thousand other things/characters/people that show up in the process...

Honestly, the movie wasn't bad. It has an almost unbearably slow and unfunny beginning, though. And the movie tries way too hard at times, just resulting in awkward moments of unfunny. And the CGI isn't the greatest, and there's way too much of it. Not to mention a few logical issues (the tiny Museum of Natural History has night guards, but the multi-building Smithsonian doesn't have any?).

However, once you get to the first major cameo appearance of the film, Jonah Hill, the movie starts to pick up considerably. And the Jonah Hill scene really is funny. Ironically, one of the best jokes in the film is basically the exact same joke, but extended on later in the movie by Hank Azaria. And the movie has a few good cameos, including Craig Robinson and Jay Baruchel (as well as 'that guy' Clint Howard, though I don't think he counts). And make sure to stick during the beginning of the credits for a fun joke with Jay Baruchel.

And the movie is pretty funny, though, like I said, it does try too hard at times. One of the biggest issues is that it tries to do too much. There are too many characters. Not to mention you can tell how every little thing is going to be important at some point in the movie, as Larry's initial walkthrough of the Smithsonian is a virtual "Chekhov's Gun" scenario. There's a focus on every little figure that Larry walks by as if ensuring "hey, make sure to remember this for later on!" But some of the characters were rather pointless. Although he's there the majority of the time, Al Capone was wasted. And the scene with Darth Vader had no purpose other than to get a laugh from Star Wars fans (it's basically no more than what you see in the trailer... maybe a minute longer). Oh, and did the movie really need to include the Jonas Brothers (regardless of not even physically being there?). Though, intentional or not, they do get a good jab in at their singing.

But there is some fun action. There's a great spoof of 300 near the end with a funny payoff. And the final fight between Larry and Kahmunrah is epic, though the music of the scene really helped (I want to find that song). That had to be one of my favorite moments of the movie.

There's not really a lot to discuss. It's a fun family film. There's good comedy, good action, and overall good entertainment. Though they never explain what happened between Larry and the Carla Gugino character from the first film. She's just... not there. Anyway, if you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one. It ups the scales a lot, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Though the real scene stealer? Amy Adams' butt.


I Am McLovin!

(P.S. Must the Judd Apatow gang be in everything these days?)

TROPIC THUNDER.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this, but I came out with a smile on my face and a good time behind me. Tropic Thunder is about a blundering war film based on a ‘true-story’ book called Tropic Thunder written by Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte). But everything is screwed up: the explosives guy Cody (Danny McBride) is overly obsessed with his profession; the actors—action guy with failing career, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller); extreme method actor, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.); failing comedian, Jeff Portney (Jack Black); rapper, Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson); and the rookie, Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel)—are all screw-ups and completely messing up the film. So the director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), gets advice from Four Leaf to film the movie guerrilla-style by dumping the actors in the middle of the jungle away from all of their modern-day vices and such. But when one bad thing after another occurs, the crew finds themselves in the middle of an Asian drug encampment, and they’re all very much real and serious.

The beginning was a little slow, though there were quite a few laughs. The big thing with this movie is the high number of cameo appearances, including the much-talked-about Tom Cruise. Sometimes they’re more than small appearances, sometimes they’re only brief. But all of them are funny.

The acting in the movie was done really well, I thought, all around. Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr., though, were the obvious leads of the film. The majority of the movie concentrated on those two actors’ characters. Jack Black’s character isn’t really the typical Jack Black, in my opinion (musically obsessed, hardcore spaz). But then again, Black wasn’t at the forefront of the movie, either. Brandon Jackson is pretty much like you’d figure him to be from the movie trailer. But the surprise of the group was Jay Baruchel, who really held his own against these other guys. You’d probably only recognize the guy from Knocked Up (the scrawny friend with the bad haircut). But his character here, though he’s not one of the top billings, played a bigger role than arguably even Jack Black’s. And his character was much better, too. Of course the stand-out was Robert Downey Jr. Anytime he was off-screen, I waited for it to go back to him (even though you could barely ever tell it was him). Oh, and Tom Cruise’s character is hilarious. He was very good, too. As for Nick Nolte? Well, he was Nick Nolte (intense and kinda creepy).

The cinematography was another thing done quite well. There were a lot of great scenery shots, as well as fun action shots. And on the subject of action, there was a lot, and it was all excellent. The only bad visual I really noticed in the whole movie was toward the end, when there’s this kid stabbing one of the characters… and the whole sequence with the kid (from the stabbing to what happened right after) looked really fake. Otherwise, it was great.

So we have the action down; what about the comedy? For an action-comedy, it’s half the equation. And it really worked. I was laughing, my theater was laughing, and it was hilarious in its absurdity. And the humor ranged all around the board: from just verbal humor, situational humor, gross-out humor, action-related humor… well, the movie was just really funny. I can’t say much more than that.

And I really don’t think I can say much more than that. The acting was done well. The visuals (in both cinematography and action) were done great. The humor was great. The cameos were great. All around, the movie was highly entertaining (except for a few slow spots toward the beginning), and I left the theater smiling. What more can you ask than that?

A Keanu 'Whoa'